


A Few Surprises

by lfvoy



Series: Aftermath [5]
Category: Firefly
Genre: F/M, Post-Movie(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-13
Updated: 2011-10-13
Packaged: 2017-10-24 13:50:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/264159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lfvoy/pseuds/lfvoy





	A Few Surprises

Kaylee hesitated at the door to the cockpit. The person in the pilot’s seat was one of the last she’d have expected to see sitting there.

“You surprise me, Dr. Tam,” she finally said, her tone somewhere between admiration and worry. “I had no idea you could fly a Firefly.” Although seeing Simon was always shiny, she worried about whether he’d mistreat _Serenity_. He might not know any better.

Simon turned slightly toward her. “Hi. I can’t.”

Alarmed, she turned around. “Riv–”

“Please don’t,” he cut in. “She’s asleep. Finally.”

She quieted but she knew there was still a worried look on her face. If something went wrong mid-flight…Kaylee shuddered when she thought about the last time _that_ had happened.

“Relax,” he continued. “She says that since we’re mid-flight and only running on inertia, all I need to do is watch the board in case something goes wrong.” He shrugged. “That’s not exactly hard.”

That made her feel better, since she’d done it a few times herself. “It’s pretty boring, though.”

“This isn’t the first time I’ve done it,” he answered. He held out a hand. “But come here. It’s not boring tonight.”

Smiling, she let him draw her over to the pilot’s seat where she settled into his lap. Her comment this time was teasing. “You sayin’ you have something interesting to look at?”

His hands found her hair and pulled it down around her shoulders. “Yes, actually. There’s a comet out there. At least that’s what the board says it is.”

That wasn’t what she’d expected to hear, but Simon was apparently full of surprises tonight. “A comet?”

“Yeah,” he said, shifting her slightly so she could see out the window. He pointed. “There. See it?”

“Shiny,” she breathed. “Yeah, that’s a comet. Look at that coma.”

His hands stilled. “Coma?”

“That glow ’round the nucleus. Those tails’ll really be somethin’ once it gets close to a sun.”

Simon looked confused now. “Nucleus? That’s a comet, not a cell.”

Kaylee turned to look back at him. “I know it is. That’s the center of the comet. And, see, the coma is that gas and dust ’round it. It’ll spread out real pretty once it hits a sun’s wind.”

“I didn’t know a star had wind.”

“Oh, yeah. It’s why _Serenity_ can’t be flew without a pilot inside a solar system. The wind comin’ off the sun would toss it around, same way it blows the coma off the nucleus and makes the tails.”

His hands had found her hair again. “You’re amazing.”

It felt good enough that she burrowed her face against his neck. “Naw. I’m just a mechanic, that’s all. Means I need to know a little about flyin’, but I can’t do what River does.”

“It means you know more astronomy than I do. I didn’t know comets worked that way.”

She pushed off his chest. “Really?”

“Really,” he answered. “You give me a pleasant surprise nearly every day.” His eyes weren’t on the comet now, she saw. They were on her.

She leaned down to kiss him. “I like surprises.”


End file.
